Urinary Incontinence: How to Handle Bedwetting by Someone Living with Dementia

Wee, Wee, Wee All Through the House

(AKA Some Thoughts on How to Deal with Urinary Incontinence)

Urinary incontinence management has been leaking into my caregiving routines more and more lately.  Sorry for the “leaking” pun… but not really…. because leaks of any kind are things that most people do not want as they cause work beyond what is typical in a day…leaks and other struggles with urinary incontinence can be costly and time-consuming too.

Enuresis is the caregiver term for wetting during sleep. Enuresis became an issue at our house about 1 year ago. At that time it was very infrequent. But now, it does not occur every night but seems to happen for a week at a time then go away and then come back later. One thing most caregivers of someone with Parkinson’s can agree on is, the unpredictability can drive you bonkers!  What follows is what I have tried and what seems to work for us currently.

When the enuresis was very infrequent I opted to use washable bed pads like the white ones pictured below.  These pads #ad were waterproof, washable, and made to hold a lot of urine. Initially, I used just one under where my husband slept.  Mistake….learned that although my husband tends to sleep in the same spot on the bed because of his Parkinson’s, some nights he moves off of the one pad used.

There is a long story but to get to what pad system I use currently, here goes…  I have purchased multiple pads of different sizes with different top materials.  The goal is to use pads to catch the urine so that the bed sheets stay dry, resulting in less laundry needed per bed wetting. The pads I currently use are the following…. click the images to see the Amazon link. These pads come in a variety of different sizes…some are non-slip…some are not.  I use all of the pads pictured.  I probably 

have at least 20+ pads altogether.  That way I don’t have to wash every time there is ‘wee’ event.  All my beds have waterproof encasement for the mattress and box springs….protecting them from spills and dust.  With that as a foundation, right now, I just use pads to try to manage enuresis. 

Between the mattress pad and sheet, there are multiple pads on his half of a king-sized bed to protect the mattress pad in case there is a lot of movement during the night that gets him off of the pads on top of the sheets. 

On top of the sheet, the gray pad is placed from the top of the bed to the bottom of the bed. I decided to do it top to bottom because one morning after ‘weeing’ he scooted to the bottom of the bed to sit with wet clothing on….resulting in lots of laundry of all bedding.  

On top of the gray pad, I put two plaid or white pads depending on what I grab first.  I place pads close to the side of the bed to prevent the sheet from getting wet.  I also wrap his pillow with a pad in case the ‘wee’ wicks up his bed clothing to the pillow.

Things I have learned…

• Each pad’s waterproofing will begin to fail as they are washed and dried multiple times.  (Glad I put 2 pads on top of the gray pad).
• Tried multiple types of adult ‘pull-ups’ like Depend brand with and without extra pads in different configurations.  None were 100% reliable, so dropped their use for now.
• You can put a pull-up on over clothing and shoes….here is one of the how-to videos. 

Other tidbits…

• In addition to night wetting events in the bed, I alsoI use these pads in the chairs he sits in to protect them from ‘wee’ events during the daytime.  They also catch a lot of crumbs and other stuff that gets dropped in the chair if positioned just right.
• Lingering urine smells can be managed by OdorZyme.

• or other similar products.  I really hate the smell of urine in my house.
• We take these pads on vacation to protect beds and chairs. I also carry baby wipes, vinyl gloves, plastic bags, and extra clothing when traveling.
• Because my husband sleeps on his back, his covers rarely get wet.  Because of Parkinson’s he needs really lightweight covers so he doesn’t feel ‘tied’ down by their weight of them.  He currently uses a lightweight fleece or down-lap blanket.
• For the car, I purchased a waterproof seat cover. 

•   Life saver for traveling and eating in the car.

As always, we are still in the mix of caregiving so how we manage incontinence will change as time goes on and as the disease progresses. 

Thought after writing this post: 

The Family Caregiver Alliance has a post that addresses the emotional and social stresses of incontinence management.  For, while I don’t like touching urine-soaked items, I have learned to do it and don’t always wear gloves.  I have had one incidence of major ‘poop’ cleanup …. I have a long way to go on this one.  A story for another time….